Somehow I missed this until today, and I'm sure many of you have as well. In an interesting development coming out of Native America, members of the Lakota tribe have declared their independence form the US, and have officially withdrawn from all treaties signed between the tribe and the US government. Leaders have gone to Washington DC to make the announcement, and lobby foreign embassy's for support. They have also renounced their US citizenship (by cutting up driver's licenses) and plan to take their efforts international. Reportedly, these actions were put in place based on the belief that the recent UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will offer legal and political support. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, and I'm wondering what it will take to get this on the nightly news! I will continue to post as I find out more, but you can start with checking out these sites and articles:- from the AFP: Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse Break Away from US
- the Lakota Freedom Delegation website
- an article by Barbara Peterson: Lakota Secession: No Longer Tolerating Broken Promises
stay tuned...
so bad ass. i did see brief mention of this somewhere.. can't remember exactly where. not sure why a bigger deal hasn't been made about it. i think it's awesome! and hope others follow suit.
ReplyDeletecan't help but think of these lines from a w.h. auden poem. it's out of context, but the sarcasm is so applicable.
ReplyDelete"Was he free? Was he Happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard."